After two consecutive years of irritating visits to the New York Comic Con, I was glad one of my best friends was getting married this weekend. I was thinking that I could skip the con entirely. But friends from out of town were coming in, so, since I had Friday free, the wife and I decided to hit NYCC more as a way meet up with friends that we haven't seen in a while.
Imagine my surprise, against my negative expectations, I had one of my best convention going experiences!
Since I had class on Friday, the wife and I didn't get there until after 4PM, an hour after the con opened. I was expecting there to still be a line, but there wasn't. We got our lanyards and were able to walk right in.
The NYCC is in most, if not all, of the top section of the Javits Center this year. This means that the con felt much less crowded. The aisles were bigger too so you were free to walk and weren't bumping into each other. I don't know if the same went for Saturday, but this was a great change.
But best of all, the air conditioning was on. This means that this was the first convention where I wasn't sweating my ass off. Trust me, that was a good thing.
Since I was only going one day to the convention, I made a checklist of things I wanted to do. Luckily, I got most all of them done.
First off, I made a bee line over to the Harry Abrams booth so Mark Evanier could sign my copy of Kirby: King of Comics. I am a huge fan of Mr. Evanier and his newsfromme blog is an everyday read for me. And it should be for you as well.
Next on the list was I wanted to get a Knight Shadow Batman at the Mattel booth. Got it and two other figures.
Next I wanted to meet another of my favorite bloggers, Valerie D'Orazio of Occasional Superhero fame:
Note: This will probably be the only appearance of my wife's face on my blog. She thinks that if her face is on the internet, someone will create an exact match of it to create a mask and use said mask to steal her identity, steal all our money and ruin her credit. But since Val already posted a similar picture on her blog, I think I can get away with it this one time.
Val was awesome. Very friendly and down to Earth. I'm really glad I went over to say hi. And we bought a trade from the MoCCA/Friends of Lulu table, which helps both worthy causes.
I will say this. I am going to have to lose some weight. I am a Val-and-a-half-wide. That's not good.
The MoCCA/Friends of Lulu booth was near the Dark Horse booth. So Jen and I decided to go and pick up the hottest commodity of the NYCC--The big yellow bags that Dark Horse was giving away free. These were all over the con as they were big, roomy and excellent for carrying all of your purchases.
But while we were there they were setting up for a Mike Mignola signing. I was a fan back to his days on Alpha Flight and Hulk. I didn't intend on going to the signing. But there was only a small line while I was there so I decide, why not?
That's Joshua Dysart in the back, handing me my autograph book. Duncan Fergedo, Paul Azaceta, and John Arcudi also signed the book. I have a picture of Mr. Arcudi, but since he doesn't like to have his photo taken, I will honor at least part of his wishes and not put it on my blog. (BTW< the not taking pictures isn't a diva thing for him. He just doesn't like it. Seeing myself in these pictures, I'm beginning to see where he's coming from in a personal sense.)
From there, we booked it over to artists alley where I met one of my idols, Geoff Johns:
I actually got to tell him that he writes a great "last page". I told him that many times reading the JSA. that I came to his last page, I really wanted it not to end and eagerly awaited the next issue.
What's cool, is that when he signed my book, he drew a little Hawkman mask around his name. This is the second writer who drew something in my book. Brian K. Vaughan drew a monkey when he signed my book. which was cool.
I had wanted to get Peter David's autograph, but, unfortunately, he wasn't there. Unfortunately, his wife got in a traffic accident which caused him to leave early. She's okay, but he did the right thing.
After this, we needed to sit down and relax. So we bought some overpriced drinks from Starbucks and went downstairs. It was down there where I realized I might be secretly a Skrull.
Or, even worse, secretly a Simpson!
Yes, I am a dork. But I am a fun dork, if that counts for anything.
As we were waiting there, this big group of people walks by. A bunch of NYCC red-shirts, a couple suits and an extremely skinny woman were in the group. Turns out, that it was that noted comic writer Jenna Jameson herself. Funny thing is, she passed us by at 7:15PM, a time which she was supposed to be at that "Girls who kick ass" panel that she should never have been a part of. I don't know what this means. One option was that she went to the panel, found out she really had nothing to add, and left. That would be funny, but unlikely. More likely she was just late, pulling a diva stunt, like being called a comic writer for coming up with an outline for a Virgin series makes her worthy of being on the same panel as Louise Simonson and Colleen Doran and isn't a big enough diva stunt the way it is.
But I digress.
We went back up and walked around for a few minutes. Jen picked up some Sojourn trades from the Checker tabel. Then we went back downstairs and met our friend--and my employer--Rich Drees of Film Buff Online fame after the X-Files 2 panel.
And since Rich is a cool guy. He posed with me, masked.
This way, when he becomes a respected movie critic on the lines of Roger Ebert or Pauline Kael, a picture of him wearing a Lisa Simpson mask will be on the internet. And I'm glad that I can make that happen.
Then we went upstairs and met our friend, Jeff Stolarcyk, of Conditional Axe, Another Castle and Snackbar Games fame
We decided to take them to one of our favorite places to eat in the city, Stout. Usually, it is so crowded that you can't get a seat, but that was not the case on Friday. It was, however, louder than usual. Not very condusive to conversation. But the food and drink was good, so we had that going for us.
Now, in order to make this the longest post ever, my thoughts on some of the NYCC announcements.
ITEM!!: Gail Simone to write a Secret Six ongoing: Three words. This. Is. Awesome. But since I am a negative bastard, I just hope this isn't like the recent Waid/Flash thing where Gail only writes the first six issue and then leaves. Speaking of Waid...
ITEM!!! Mark Waid joins the Amazing Spider-Man writing team: I thought that his BOOM! EIC duties would preclude doing anything else, but maybe just being part of the rotation makes this work. He's a good fit nonetheless.
ITEM!!! Trailer for The Spirit debuts: Somebody should tie Frank Miller to a chair and explain to him, at length, that not every comic property worked better if you make it exactly like Sin City. Actually, most don't.
ITEM!!! Marvel announces Marvel Apes: I am not a big fan of apes, so I could be wrong when I say this is the stupidest idea ever, but this is the stupidest idea ever. Most stupidest. But I do know that this is really too much like the JLApe story line DC did years ago. You know what, Marvel, instead of releasing Indentity Disc the same time DC released Identity Crisis and apeing DC's Invasion and Millenium with Secret Invasion, and now this one, why don't you show some real back bone and do a crisis of your own. Serious, stop pussyfooting around and just do it already.
ITEM!!! Duane Swierczynski, Gregg Hurwitz and Victor Gischler replace Garth Ennis on Punisher: It takes three writers to replace him, and they still seem puny in comparisson. Credit to you, Mr. Ennis.
ITEM!!! Gordon Lee case dismissed: See what happens when the D.A. can't price a defendant out of pleading not guilty? Justice, at a cost, is finally served. BTW, donate to the CBLDF.
ITEM!!! Power Girl gets her own ongoing: Palmiotti, Gray and Connor make this a must pick up.
ITEM!! Stan Lee to create superhero line for Virgin: There is a joke out there somewhere about Lee working for the same company--in the same capacity--as Jenna Jameson, but I just can't wrap my mind around it. Anyone care to take a shot?
[this is good] Very awesome, quick report. I so wish I was there this year. I've never been to NY, but one day. One day I tell you!
ReplyDeleteThe folks from Image that I intern for came back with loads of shwag that we were ogling at the office today. But, those announcements you list have me actually excited for new comics this year.
Plus, I'm glad someone else besides me thinks that Frank Miller is going to seriously screw up the Spirit movie. That trailer did nothing for me.
Bill, You'd be surprised who are skrulls!
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